Christmas Specials-Sherlock and Call the Midwife

A Victorian Sherlock Holmes and John Watson!

Sherlock Holmes has gone Victorian for the holidays! Airing on PBS on January 1st at 9:00 pm we have Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman returning for a one off Sherlock special set in Victorian times with period settings. Yay! I love Sherlock but putting him back in his deer stalker hat and cape is inspired. And I love Mr. Watson's handlebar mustache.

Mr. Watson and Mr. Holmes look ready for adventure!

The Abominable Bride is a 90 minute special and I can't imagine a better way to usher in the new year! Here is a preview to whet your whistle:

Nurses Barbara Gilbert, Trixie Franklin and Patsy Mount are ready for Christmas!

But if you would like a great way to spend Christmas night, the ladies of Nonnatus House in Poplar East London are ready to celebrate 1960 style with a bus trip to Regent street to see the lights.

Are those nurse's caps or Christmas cracker hats?

Sister Evangelina is not in the Christmas spirit despite preparations for a televised carol sing but things go wrong when Sister Monica Joan goes missing. Hasn't she been missing before? At least she isn't barefoot this time!

A Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Cheers!

Call The Midwife Season 4!

I am thrilled to announce the arrival of Call The Midwife Season 4 on Sunday March 29th on PBS! And amazingly, it is as wonderful as the last two seasons. I was trying not to read any spoilers online last fall from the UK but I did hear some happy murmuring on Twitter about the new season. They were right.

The first episode is all I have watched so far, and it was really Trixie's show this week. She had me crying a few times. Who knew the party girl from the first season had such depth? I really didn't miss Cynthia or Jenny at all! And the new midwife Barbara Gilbert (played by Charlotte Ritchie) is apparently a bit of a klutz, but is really quite adorable as an earnest Vicar's daughter transplanted to Nonnatus House.

Sister Monica Joan has some rare moments of lucidity, grumpy Sister Evangelina has a mysterious medical issue she is trying to ignore, and Chummy made barely a cameo before lurching off in a car. I was feeling very nervous for the bystanders when she was reversing with that manual transmission!

Hopefully I haven't given too much away. And I hope you will enjoy this season as much as I am. Go Trixie!

Cheers!

P.S. I can't wait for the new nurse Phyllis Crane, played in Episode 2 by the marvelous Linda Bassett (the pianist from Calendar Girls, Queenie from Larkrise to Candleford and Mrs. Jennings from the most recent Sense and Sensibility). Her character Phyllis is described as "officious". I can't wait!

Call The Midwife Holiday Special Dec 29 2013

I was lucky enough to be able to preview the new Call The Midwife Holiday Special today. As much as I enjoyed last year's Christmas Special, I am happy to report that this year's was every bit as good. Prepare to cry. Maybe not as many tears as last year but still a few.

We find Sister Bernadette no longer a nun (and now going by her real name Shelagh), and preparing for her wedding to the good doctor. Speaking of Dr. Turner, he is trying to get all the children of Poplar vaccinated against polio before another outbreak. And we see lots of Chummy in this special, enjoying life as a new mother to baby Freddy, and still a Cub Scout leader!

Jenny has a new very handsome beau, and has stopped pining over that married creep. Finally! We also learn a bit about Trixie and her home life as a child.

There is a crisis in the form of an unexploded bomb from the Blitz which was discovered in the rebuilding effort in the East End of London. The neighbourhood of Nonnatus House is evacuated to a community hall, and all just before Christmas!

So what will come of Nonnatus House and our favourite nuns? Tune in to PBS on Sunday Dec 29th at 7:30 pm and find out. I think I will watch it again with you then!

Cheers!

Call The Midwife- PBS this Sunday Sept 30!

Call The Midwife

If you are patiently awaiting the return of Downton Abbey, you have a real treat in store. Call The Midwife is a BBC miniseries based on the best selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth. I can't talk this one up enough! I love it!!! The stories of young midwives delivering babies in the East End of London in the 1950s is moving and funny and will have you coming back for all 5 episodes. Sunday night on PBS is going to be wonderful this fall!

Jessica Raine plays Jenny Lee, a young woman from the wealthy countryside of England who has trained as a nurse and midwife and is posted to the rough East End of London. The series follows her and her fellow midwives as they work in one of the poorest parts of London, still reeling from the bombings of WWII.

Judy Parfitt, Pam Ferris, Jenny Agutter and Laura Main as the nuns

Instead of the hospital Jenny Lee is expecting, she finds herself posted to a convent (Nonnatus House) with some fairly unconventional nuns. Judy Parfitt (Mrs. Clennam from Little Dorrit) and Jenny Agutter (Idina Hatton from The Buccaneers) are particularly wonderful as the nuns overseeing and teaching the young midwives. Judy Parfitt plays the adorable Sister Monica Joan who has a bit of dementia and is only occasionally lucid. Hilarious and touching at the same time. Jenny Agutter is Sister Julienne, the real heart of the operation and someone for the young midwives to look up to.

Helen George, Miranda Hart, Jessica Raine and Bryony Hannah

Long before her memoirs were filmed, author of the book Jennifer Worth asked Miranda Hart to play Chummy Browne, the six foot tall ungainly, clumsy midwife featured in the stories. If you haven't seen comedienne Miranda Hart before, you will love her and you will start to look for her in other things. She doesn't appear until episode 2 so stay tuned.

If I have any readers in the UK, Australia, New Zealand or Europe who have already seen this, please comment below and tell us what you thought of it. Personally, I cannot wait!

P.S. As PBS says, check local listings. Some of the stations are starting this Sunday Sept 30 at 8pm but my local station in Buffalo has it listed as starting the week after (Sunday Oct. 7 at 8 pm)